The layoffs announced Tuesday are expected to be the first of many job reductions on Wall Street following the recent turbulence in global financial markets.

Industry observers, however, don't anticipate the cutbacks to be as severe as those in the late 1980s, when more than 50,000 jobs were lost following the stock market's crash in October 1987.

''A decade ago, we saw a combination of massive trading losses combined with a halt in most businesses conducted by brokerage firms,'' said Michael Flanagan, an analyst at Financial Service Analytics in Port Washington, Pa.

''Today, we are seeing modest layoffs, not a general layoff policy for the entire industry,'' he said. ''This is a dose of reality that the tide has turned on Wall Street.''

Merrill Lynch, the world's biggest brokerage firm, also reported Tuesday a loss of $164 million, or 49 cents per share on a diluted basis, for the third quarter.